The strengthening of a culture collection is also due to the number of deposits it receives, as well as its quality. Regarding the number of deposits, CICG seeks to diversify accesses originating from different environmental conditions and geographic regions. The quality of these deposits can be measured by culture viability and inoculum potential (when deposits are single-species cultures) or by the number of different species sporulating after a 4-5 months growth cycle (when deposits are field soil or trap cultures).
New accesses can be deposited with the CICG in two ways:
1. Field soil
Soil samples can be sent directly from the field and deposited at CICG. In this case, soil sample is mixed with sterile sand and incorporated into the collection as a trap culture, with its own code. It should be remembered that the result of the first trap cycle is highly variable depending on the initial inoculum potential of the field soil. If spore production is low after the first cycle, the culture will be propagated again for another propagation cycle for 4-5 months.
Deposits from field soils are established in a greenhouse for trap cultures only and they are not grown in the same greenhouse containing single-species cultures. In the case that during the culture cycle the host plant is attacked by pathogens, such as nematodes, oomycetes or other fungi, the culture will be destroyed (autoclaved).
Contributors who deposit an access as field soil will be entitled, free of charge, to single-species cultures of all fungi originating from that access.
2. Single-species Cultures and Trap Cultures
Trap cultures (containing several species of AMF) or single-species cultures (containing only one AMF species) can be deposited at the CICG. In fact, we encourage the deposit of trap culture, as this way the diversity of species obtained in single-species culture will be greater.
Each deposit, as long as it is viable and in good condition, entitles the contributor to receive a CICG culture at no cost. If the contributor deposits a trap culture, he/she can receive cultures of the species present in this trap culture, at no cost, after they have been established in single-species cultures. If the contributor deposits a single-species culture, he/she can receive, at no cost, another single-species culture from the CICG.
Depositing single-species cultures, contributors will have free access later to these cultures (200 ml) when requested. It is important to keep in mind that a request needs at least a 4 months-notice in advance, since not all accesses will be maintained in quantities.
Each deposit made must be accompanied by the CICG deposit form. The information presented in this form will be transferred to our databases and constitute the initial documentation for each access. In this form, the contributor must indicate to the CICG i) whether the deposit will be accessible to the public or whether it should remain for restricted use only in the CICG, and ii) whether the contributor wishes to receive all information from the deposit after the first cycle of propagation of the deposit or whether there is no need to send this data.